A Layered Landscape: How the Family Sagas Mapped Medieval Iceland
The Icelandic Family Sagas – Old-Norse prose narratives written during the 1200s – inscribe in retrospect a process by which the unknown terrain of late ninth-century settlement Iceland is ‘mapped’ through association with human story. Space begs history: family sagas locate past deeds in a present...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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University of Western Australia
2010-07-01
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| Series: | Limina: A Journal of Historical and Cultural Studies |
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| Online Access: | http://www.limina.arts.uwa.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/2571067/HogartArticle.pdf |
| _version_ | 1818402160148217856 |
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| author | Carol Hoggart |
| author_facet | Carol Hoggart |
| author_sort | Carol Hoggart |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The Icelandic Family Sagas – Old-Norse prose narratives written during the 1200s – inscribe in retrospect a process by which the unknown terrain of late ninth-century settlement Iceland is ‘mapped’ through association with human story. Space begs history: family sagas locate past deeds in a present landscape. At the most evident level, sagas explain how places received their names by reference to the people who had lived there. Another layer of meaning is created by the movement of stories and journeys over this named geography. Furthermore, the saga landscape thus constructed is shown to have continuing relevance: the sagas link past and present, with physical evidence of saga action still evident in thirteenth- or even twentieth-century Iceland. Yet family sagas do not claim that all responsibility for this construction of landscape lay with the early settlers. The land too is shown to have had agency, so choosing its people and history. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-14T08:03:57Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-fa8facf063e54366ba655dae14924dbc |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1833-3419 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-14T08:03:57Z |
| publishDate | 2010-07-01 |
| publisher | University of Western Australia |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Limina: A Journal of Historical and Cultural Studies |
| spelling | doaj.art-fa8facf063e54366ba655dae14924dbc2022-12-21T23:10:16ZengUniversity of Western AustraliaLimina: A Journal of Historical and Cultural Studies1833-34192010-07-0116None18A Layered Landscape: How the Family Sagas Mapped Medieval IcelandCarol Hoggart0University of Western AustraliaThe Icelandic Family Sagas – Old-Norse prose narratives written during the 1200s – inscribe in retrospect a process by which the unknown terrain of late ninth-century settlement Iceland is ‘mapped’ through association with human story. Space begs history: family sagas locate past deeds in a present landscape. At the most evident level, sagas explain how places received their names by reference to the people who had lived there. Another layer of meaning is created by the movement of stories and journeys over this named geography. Furthermore, the saga landscape thus constructed is shown to have continuing relevance: the sagas link past and present, with physical evidence of saga action still evident in thirteenth- or even twentieth-century Iceland. Yet family sagas do not claim that all responsibility for this construction of landscape lay with the early settlers. The land too is shown to have had agency, so choosing its people and history.http://www.limina.arts.uwa.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/2571067/HogartArticle.pdficelandic sagahistorysettlementfamily saga |
| spellingShingle | Carol Hoggart A Layered Landscape: How the Family Sagas Mapped Medieval Iceland Limina: A Journal of Historical and Cultural Studies icelandic saga history settlement family saga |
| title | A Layered Landscape: How the Family Sagas Mapped Medieval Iceland |
| title_full | A Layered Landscape: How the Family Sagas Mapped Medieval Iceland |
| title_fullStr | A Layered Landscape: How the Family Sagas Mapped Medieval Iceland |
| title_full_unstemmed | A Layered Landscape: How the Family Sagas Mapped Medieval Iceland |
| title_short | A Layered Landscape: How the Family Sagas Mapped Medieval Iceland |
| title_sort | layered landscape how the family sagas mapped medieval iceland |
| topic | icelandic saga history settlement family saga |
| url | http://www.limina.arts.uwa.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/2571067/HogartArticle.pdf |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT carolhoggart alayeredlandscapehowthefamilysagasmappedmedievaliceland AT carolhoggart layeredlandscapehowthefamilysagasmappedmedievaliceland |